Are you ready to enter the dark, dark void that is Paresis’s debut album? Well, you’re staring right at it so chances are you’re being pulled in this very second. The calculating claws of ‘Not In My Name’ have taken over your subconscious and brought you into the mindset, and now…click! Your eyes are open and you’re bouncing double time to ‘Looking For A Fight’. With every reverberation of the main beat comes more depth, more blood, more suction, until you’re absorbed. There’s no stopping now…

This album is awesome. It’s disjointed, fast-paced, and did we mention, blacker than night? Not the night out-y kind of night either, with those incessant, multitudinous club colours distracting you from your impending doom, and a hundred streetlights paving the way home. Oh no. This is a pitch-black maze. You can’t find your way home, and every face you see is an unfriendly, wretched contortion that wants you dead. ‘Anti Me’ rips right through to your core, with heavy tones and a satisfying formation taming down right after the terrifying peak, then building up again like a horror movie. There are many layers to the latter track, but significantly less to ‘Pigs’, which still manages to spook the listener right from the word go. Creepy? Is that the word I’m looking for? Yes. With its mismatched death metal (ish. The vibes are there…) fuzz and that unnerving tap drip noise, this track is one hell of a ride, especially when it kicks in. Ooh, shit!

…The madness in your brain has now been sated. You’re staring into the abyss. But only for so long. ‘Replacer’ brings you into a peculiar party zone. You’re looking out at distorted white lines and an endless black hole…

This is the best track, hands down. Where the previous tracks are downplayed and discomforting, this one is energetic and holds nothing back. For me, this was the hook. The song that I just couldn’t stop listening to. In other places, the latter track and ‘Spirit Hack’, bring a more familiar song structure, but there is never a point where this album sounds similar to any industrial artist out there. Sure, there’s a touch of XP8 to ‘Spirit Hack’. This one is a lighter touch, but those verses should sure vouch for any unnerving atmosphere you might be missing, and ‘Shall I Come’ brings a bite no other track has, with its crunchy guitar interludes and wub-wubs to boot. And that’s before Simon Fuller’s Psyclon Nine-esque vocals demonstrate just how that foreshadowing can pay off in the most fitting way, giving the verses their backbone.

…You’re fading. Degraded. Abused. You don’t quite know what you’ve heard, or seen, but you know that you can’t escape it. ‘Wrecked’ is shaping your future with its methodical pace. You’re sliding into the wonderfully complex abyss that Paresis has created. Forever.